My How Time Flies

Well, it's been a year since my life changed forever. In a lot of ways things are so much better than they have ever been - in others not so much. But I have a few things that I didn't have a year ago - faith, hope and above all, love.

Long time no post

Wow! It's been exactly one month since I have bothered to post anything. Well, what can I say, I've been busy. Some things that have kept me away has just been life in general and taking part of some amazing activies at church (Alpha - I highly recommend it).

I wish I could report wonderful things, but sadly that is not the case. Within the last week, my brother-in-law had to go back in the hospital. He has lung cancer and things are not going very well for him. The news we have received this week hasn’t been good. What we thought was pneumonia has turned out to be, at least what I know right now, the cancer spreading.

I have been trying to step into my sister’s shoes this past week and help care for our father and keep up with a very active four year old. Actually, watching Ian and his grandpa together has brought a lot of joy. I worry for my sister, her husband and children. Then I have to remind myself of the advice I gave Ron before leaving for the hospital, ‘let go, and let God’. Sometimes that easier said than done.

When it feels as if the weight of the world is pressing down on not just you, but your entire family as well it’s easy to wonder if the bad will ever end. It’s hard to remind yourself that life is a series of peaks and valleys. We may be in the valley at the moment, heck it feels more like a dungeon, but this won’t last forever. We will push through and up and we won’t do it alone. God is right here seeing to us all and giving us strength.

Frustration

Frustation pretty much is the sum total of what dominates my life at the moment. I have been trying for months to get my mortgage company to apply the pay-off that I sent them back in September. This whole process has made me want to go postal on more than one occasion.

Let me back track for a moment......

The past year has been well, rough to put it mildly. On March 12, 2009 my son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The next day (oddly enough) Friday, March 13th I was laid off. Can you say panic anyone? To further add to the pressure, my husband is an alcoholic that just couldn't seem to get a grip on life in general. After a particularly bad fight, I decided to leave or rather put him out. That was on April 9th. End result? He burned the house down. Thank God no one was hurt and I wasn't there, nor was our son.

Obviously there are more details than I am including here. But I don't have time to post every single one. Thankfully, my insurance company paid off the mortgage, or at least issued the check, which I dutifully sent in. The problem? Well, Bank of America doesn't appear to want to apply it.

I am ready to scream at the top of my lungs. I have gone round and round with them over this. Every time I call, new "fees" magically appear. I was out of work, consistent work, from March until August. Five months folks. Every cent received from the insurance claim went to bills. Now, I'm left with a burnt out shell of a home and a mortgage company that gives every indication that they want the money and what's left of my home.

Any attorney's out there? I could really use a hand right now or a bulldozer, really whichever is handy........

What's in a name?

I have been intrigued by the many posts on Facebook over the last couple of days with individuals posting the meaning of their name. I finally found out that folks were going to urban dictionary.com and posting their own definitions.

I didn’t realize this at first. When I found out about the site, I did a search for my name. What came up completely surprised me. I was shocked, nay incensed to discover that my name is “code” for any number of nasty things. I won’t list them here, if you’re that curious, look it up yourself.

I have the unfortunate “pleasure” of my name being able to spell a different word when spelled backwards. And my name being what it is, Lana, “backwards” or the “rear” figures highly into the jokes being made about the name Lana.

There are not many people who share my name. Growing up, it was sometimes annoying when my name was pronounced differently than I was used to. It can be done any number of different ways. I grew up with it being pronounced LANuh, rhyming with banana. As an adult, I’ve grown to like the sound of LA nuh. For starters it sounds adult as opposed to what I grew up with. It’s all in the emphasis, but what can truly trigger an eye-roll from me is when people get creative. I’ve heard LAINuh and Lena I’m not sure how they got that, there is no i or e in my name.

It wasn’t until last year that I found out that I was named after Lana Turner. My aunt was a big fan of hers and liked the name. When my mom was expecting me, and when my aunt named her daughter something completely different, she asked her sister if it would bother her if she gave me the name, and the rest as they say is history.

And my classmates in high school wondered when I told them to just call me Lumpy…..so much less confusing and the tale on how I got that nickname is funny as well. But, I’m not telling it now - that’s a story for another day.

Why is it so Hard?

Why is it so hard to follow the Golden Rule? Why is it easier for us (all us humans) to want to be treated a certain way, but we don't actually do it?

I had a project to do at work today which involved pulling old shipping information. It was dirty frustrating work, because my predecessor didn't think it was a high priority to label the boxes with the shipment file range numbers. The boxes were marked, shipment files and they had a box number on them and nothing else.

As I tugged and pulled to get the boxes open I really wanted to give this person a piece of my mind! How dare she not consider that someone would have to pull information from those boxes in the future? Why did she cram so many in one box? I could barely open it!

Then I had to admit, that while yes, it does make good sense to properly label the box, I was really mad because I was inconvenienced. I don't like to be inconveninced, no one does. But when I get caught in the trap of thinking that all things and people should march to the beat of my drum, that's a dangerous place to be.

It is so easy to ask why someone doesn't do it my way (the right way in our minds?). It's a lot harder to step outside yourself, and see things from another person's point of view. But how much more considerate would we all be to each other if we all tried our very best to do that as often as we could?

Maybe it's possible.....but part of me still wants to sound off....oh wait, didn't I just do that? Rant over!

Midwinter

This time of year is always such a drag here in the midwest. Christmas is long gone, the days are just barely starting to last a bit longer, it's no longer dark before I get home from work. But it's still cold, wet and you never know if we're going to get hit with snow and ice.

It's a beautiful day out there, so I really should get outside and try and enjoy some of it before it's gone. But, being a grown up means pesky responsibilities like laundry and cleaning need to be done. There are days I wish I could be 9 years old all over again.

I was 9 when the last blizzard hit in 77-78 and it was a blast! School was called off, I got to play in the snow and I don't really remember ever getting too cold. I do remember mom dressing me in several layers of clothes in order to go outside. When you're nine, being waist deep in snow is a fun thing. It's not so fun as a grown up.

Now, why am I going on about blizzards and snow when it's so nice outside? I'm not sure, but I suspect it's because I know this nice day won't be coming back anytime soon. There will be several more months of winter according to the calendar. But as everyone in Cincinnati knows, the calendar means nothing. We've had white Easter's, white Halloween's, but a white Christmas? Rarely.

So, in order to chase away the winter blah's - I'm going to get off my duff, grab the younin' and venture out of doors. Maybe all I'll do is get the car washed, maybe we'll just drive around (not likely though). But I am going outside today!

Later folks.....

Friday!

Thank goodness it's Friday! For whatever reason, this week has been a struggle and I'm glad it's over. I laughed the first time I ever heard the phrase, Friday night sleep, but I understand it now. There are few things more comforting than crawling into bed with the knowledge that I don't have to get up early the next morning. A morning person I am not, at least until I've had one solid hit of caffine.

With all this said, I must stop for a moment and reflect how truly blessed I am. When I think of the massive destruction in Haiti, my mind just can't take it in. I would urge everyone to donate whatever you can to aid this country. Even if you can't afford to send a lot of money, you can offer up prayers, go through your cabinets pull out some canned goods, hit the dollar store and buy some essentials. Trust me, when you have nothing, you're grateful for whatever comes your way. In this situation, your little bit can go a long long way.

Launch!

Well, this is my first ever blog post. I hope to be able to post thoughts, ideas, stuff that interest me, and hopefully will interest you too.

About my title, this is an expression that my mother used to say to express mild disgust or frustration. It's a nice little phrase that I like, a good alternative to throwing out a bunch of curse words.

Another favorite is I'll be dipped. My father got me hooked on that one. Many is the time I've heard him say, well I'll be dipped in glue! Gotta love odd phrases that crop up in certain parts of the country.